SEO Glossary Terms: Algorithm

Search engines use a series of complex algorithms to rank pages in their index for a given search term. The exact contents of the search engine algorithms are unknown, because the search engines realise that armed with this kind of information, black hat SEOs would be able to manipulate the search results to their own ends without having to provide a good quality website for the rewards.

Algorithm updates occur when Google and the other major engines make a change to one or more of their calculations, or when they remove or release a new algorithm component. Often referred to as the Google dance, there's typically a lot of SEO hysteria following algorithm updates because they can lead to unexpected and often large variants in search results.

If a page performs well in the search engines then it means that their SEO campaign has been a success and that the web page has conformed to the search engine algorithms. The job of the SEO is essentially to try and determine, at least in part, the content of the algorithms and then ensure that each web page under their tenure conforms to these requirements.

The busiest and most thorough SEO may keep one eye on patent applications, blogs, and other resources in a bid to try and find information pertaining to the search engine algorithms because this give an invaluable insight into what exactly the search engines are looking for from web pages.